Evolutionary Origins of Morality: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 090784507X ISBN 13: 9780907845072

Publisher: Imprint Academic, 2000

Synopsis

This volume includes four principal papers and a total of 43 peer commentaries on the evolutionary origins of morality.

About this title

Review

"What would happen at a fictional dinner with the likes of Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, David Hume, and Friedrich Nietzsche debating and revising their views in the light of today's science? Hard to say, perhaps, but one might well imagine that it would be great fun to listen in. Forget fiction. Pick up Evolutionary Origins of Morality and find out how moral psychology is being picked apart by evolutionists. The concise essays and critical exchanges are great fun -- and a feast for the mind."

Author: Marc Hauser

"The papers are without exception excellent... It is hard to imagine a better start than the essays collected here for the new enterprise of applying evolutionary and primatological findings to the study of morality."

Source: Biology and Philosophy

"A fascinating set of essays."

Source: Human Nature Review

"Provides a wonderfully rich range of viewpoints from a variety of fields."

Source: Journal of Moral Education

"Psychologists will find much to enjoy in this meaty volume."

Source: APA Review of Books

"Thoughtful and informative,... a good basis for appreciating what has been achieved, and what the prospects might be, in a domain of inquiry that is of fundamental importance for understanding of our essential nature."

Author: Noam Chomsky

Synopsis

This title includes four principal papers and a total of 43 peer commentaries on the evolutionary origins of morality. Jessica Flack and Frans de Waal ask if human morality is the outcome of a continuous development from motives, emotions and social behaviour found in nonhuman animals. The second paper, by Christopher Boehm, synthesizes social science and biological evidence to support his theory of how our hominid ancestors became moral. In the third paper, Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson argue that an evolutionary understanding of human nature allows sacrifice for others. Finally, Brian Skyrms argues that adaptive dynamical game theory must join the social scientist's use of rational choice and classical game theory to explain cooperation.

Edition details

• Publisher: Imprint Academic
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 090784507X
• ISBN 13: 9780907845072
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Katz Leonard D.